Communicating Through Technology
Introduction This page was created out of a discussion on a group in LinkedIn among Toastmasters from around the world. The idea is to crowd-source and have individual Toastmasters pitch in to create a new Advanced Communication Manual. Disclaimer This is an informal attempt made with good intentions and has no bearing, compulsion, agenda whatsoever regarding the official Toastmasters International Educational Program. We're just fans! If we're successful, we'll submit this as a proposal, but as of 2nd Dec 2010, this manual is just a figment of imagination and ''cannot ''be used as an Advanced Communication Manual under TMI. Help First time editing a wiki? No problem! It's designed to be easy to use. Just press the Edit button next to a section, and that portion will now appear like an editable Word document. So just start typing! See Instructions section at the bottom for more. See this page for a complete guide on wiki editing and creation. Summary A summary of what this manual would cover. This manual can cover various aspects of using modern technology (computers and similar devices) to enhance or even wholly deliver a speech, a message or anything that is to be put through to an audience. This was created as a sister manual to the original : Beyond Powerpoint which concentrates on the visual presentation medium, while this one can handle other aspects. Naming, order, choosing of projects Let's concentrate on creating full-fledged projects - as many as possible, and then when we're done, we can vote the best 5 and the order. Hence the projects are initially lettered. The Talk page whose link you'll see at the top next to the page's title (in a speech box) is a discussion forum where this sort of collaborative decision-making is possible. But first let's concentrate on putting some content here. --Nikhilsheth 01:50, December 2, 2010 (UTC) Sister Manual This Manual was created as an ofshoot of Beyond Powerpoint. Project A : The Podcast Introduction Create an audio Podcast to be played back as a speech / project. This project seeks to explore the audio aspect of communicating through technology and aims to create a listening experience at the meeting or venue that satisfies the audience - be it entertaining, informative, dramatic, humorous, persuasive, inspiring or any of the things that make up a good speech. The listening audience should not be left wanting for any visual or other sensory performance and just hearing the podcast should be enough. Time 5 to 7 minutes. Description A Podcast is, at its simplest, an audio file in any format that is created by the Toastmaster, and which is played at the meeting as a project. The term originates from the proliferation in distribution of authored audio content over iPods as an audio version of blog posts or similar mediums of publishing, but is not limited to any specific playback device or format. This project only covers Audio Podcasts. It is recommended that the project not be just one single speech in audio form, however if it satisfies the requirements and is performed with quality, it may be so. It can (and is recommended to) be a composition, with different recorded tracks combined if necesary. Music (such as a starting/ending jingles commonly heard in podcasts, or even a background theme) is also allowed and recommended to improve the listener's experience. Sound effects may also be used. The podcast may have a conversation or may feature voices of persons other than the author, but overall the listening audience should get the impression that it they are listening to the speaker's project and not someone else's podcast, nor just a compilation of different audio clips. The same rules of speechmaking apply to this podcast as well : A beginning, well structured body and conclusion; a well recognizable point that is conveyed by the podcast as a whole. It's highly recommended to give the listener a prelude of what will be heard at the beginning; also a summary towards the ending is recommended. No other action The Toastmaster attempting this project may not do anything during the podcast's playback that distracts from or adds to the project. For example, you are not allowed to use body language, gestures or expressions during playback; nor can you say or do anything before or after the Podcast. Any introduction must be supplied by the Toastmaster of the Day just as for any speech. In fact, the Toastmaster delivering this project may choose to sit somewhere on the dias or back with the audience as we are only dealing with audio here. That said, the Toastmaster may be allowed to remain at the speaking space and look at the reactions of the listening audience. In essence, the Toastmaster wil not do anything during his/her speech. References, Links *http://www.themoth.org/ - A non-profit storytelling group. Website has lots of audio speeches Project B : The Web conference Introduction: Create a web conference experience where live meeting participants in the room will be connected with at least two remote participants. The web conference will be conducted as a speech / project. This project seeks to explore mixing audio and video communications technology, and the challenges of working with live and remote participants. The aim of this project is to create an interactive listening and learning experience at the meeting venue and for the remote participants that satisfies the audiences, by communicating the intended message. The presentation will be delivered live to the meeting participants and streamed via the internet to the remote audience usince LiveMeeting or other technology. The content of the audio presentation will be supplemented with a visual presentation consisting of slides and/or video. The presentation may cover any topic, with the objective of being entertaining, informative, dramatic, humorous, persuasive, inspiring or any of the things that make up a good speech. The live and remote audiences can interact with the presenter via questions or comments to facilitate their learning. Time: 8 to 10 minutes Description The web conference must provide an equally rich experience for the live participants as well as for the remote participants. The visual presentation and audio must provide a clear and effective message or tutorial. The speaker should anticipate technical challenges and unexpected complications, including a back-up plan such as offering a call-in number for participants who are unable to join the web conference successfully. In fact, such challenges should be embraced in this project, such as scheduling the web conference when club members can join remotely, from home or work, especially if the club's regular meeting facilities cannot support a web conference. As more and more people and organizations integrate the use of web-conferencing tools into their normal workplace, more and more tools come available. For this project you might consider using: * WebEx * Wiq * iMeet * GroupSystems etc. ... Project C - Speaking with Special Effects Deliver a speech that uses audio events or other special effects happening at certain pre-planned points during the speech, to enhance and/or convey any aspect of the speech through non-spoken means. Time 5 to 7 minutes Objectives *To use special effects to enhance a speech. *To get comfortable with and attain skills for using special effects with speech delivery in a synchronized manner without glitches Description Examples of special effects: drumroll, thunder, beeps, car engine, music clips etc. The special effects may be generated by any device that may be used by the speaker. The execution of the special effects may be timed or triggered, and the speaker is allowed to have an assistant do them, provided the friend doesn't end up controlling the speech. Don'ts: *Don't turn this into a canned standup comedy act. *Don't let the combined time taken by the special effects exceed the actual time spoken. *Don't become a slave of the special effects - they have to help you, not the other way around. *Don't have just one type of special effect - like just beeps, just drumroll. Have variety and choose the effect that best suits the component of the speech being delivered. Grey Area Instead of using an electronic device, what if the speaker wants to generate the sounds using a musical instrument, or by performing voice percussions? We are not sure if this would fit in the brief for "Communicating Through Technology" - the project ought to promote usage of modern technology and shouldn't end up being a loophole. At the same time, musical instruments are also techonology and tools, even if they don't use electricity or don't have circuitry. It is plausible that mankind could, at some point, develop an even more advanced technology that doesn't rely on present-day electronics. So narrowing our focus may not be a good thing since we need to create a manual that cannot easily be made redundant in the future. So this is a grey area and further discussion is needed. Project D - Communicating through Videography Introduction Whether it's selling a product or persuading volunteers to join a cause, a production video can be used to put the message across in a persuasive manner. Create a video and screen it at the Toastmasters meeting. Description Time 2~4 mins Project E - Mastering the Microphone Obtain, set up, and demonstrate the use of at least two types of microphones working with a PA system. One of the microphones should be wireless. One of the microphones should be handheld. This idea among othera sourced from this LinkedIn discussion. Project F Project G Ideas Add your Ideas here. Instructions #Want to get started on Wikia and be recognized as a person instead of an IP address? 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